With reporting from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Alta Journal brings you a list of the bestselling titles at independent bookstores across Northern and Southern California for the week ending October 23, 2022.
A pair of novels made their debut in the list ahead of the upcoming Halloween weekend. Let’s start with a ghost story, namely The Last Chairlift, John Irving’s first book in seven years. This tale follows Adam Brewster as he travels from New England to Aspen, Colorado, hunts for details of his past, and uncovers well-kept family secrets. Next is John Grisham’s The Boys from Biloxi, a legal thriller that tells the story of two families, and two boys, divided within a courtroom. If these titles aren’t enough to keep you up at night, check out Alta’s thriller recommendations to read of chilling encounters with the paranormal and a sinister summer at Camp Neverland.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng, Penguin Press, $29
- Liberation Day: Stories, George Saunders, Random House, $28
- The Boys from Biloxi, John Grisham, Doubleday, $29.95
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- The Last Chairlift, John Irving, Simon & Schuster, $38
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir, Paul Newman, Knopf, $32
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future, Yung Pueblo, Harmony, $24
- What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe, Riverhead Books, $30
- Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Maggie Haberman, Penguin Press, $32
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $20
- It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
- Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love, Amir Levine, MD, and Rachel S.F. Heller, MA, TarcherPerigee, $17
- Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles, Rosecrans Baldwin, Picador, $18
- Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, Laurie Woolever, Ecco Press, $19.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng, Penguin Press, $29
- Liberation Day: Stories, George Saunders, Random House, $28
- Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $28
- The Boys from Biloxi, John Grisham, Doubleday, $29.95
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir, Paul Newman, Knopf, $32
- Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Maggie Haberman, Penguin Press, $32
- What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe, Riverhead Books, $30
- And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, Jon Meacham, Random House, $40
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
- It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $20
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $20
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95
- Getting Lost, Annie Ernaux, Alison L. Strayer (translator), Seven Stories Press, $18.95
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
